Will steel wheels roll over environmentalists?

• Author: Gray, Tim
• Position: North Carolina's environmental review on Nucor Corp.

Jim Hunt must really like John Correnti. How else to explain the giant pair of scissors the governor handed the president and CEO of Charlotte-based Nucor Corp. to go with that oversize check - $161 million - to build a steel mill in Hertford County. The shears are for slicing red tape to make sure Nucor opens its plant by next spring.

The state's top environmental cop - Wayne McDevitt, secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources - has told regulators to get Nucor's environmental review done fast. You can bet he got his orders from the governor. To make sure Hunt gets what he wants, McDevitt's in-house lawyer even tried to bully members of the state's Marine Fisheries Commission, an independent group that sets policy for the Division of Marine Fisheries, which falls under DENR.

Dan McLawhorn, DENR's general counsel, told commissioners in a March conference call that the fisheries division's budget might be cut if they called on DENR to force Nucor to do an "environmental impact statement," the most detailed, exhaustive analysis regulators can order. Why the arm-twisting? "Dan said Nucor had threatened to leave Hertford if an EIS was required," says Commissioner Willy Phillips.

McLawhorn calls his comments warnings, not threats. "Given that some of the legislative supporters of the project are from that area and have significant roles with the budget of our department, I told them that was something they ought to think about."

The commissioners paid no heed. On March 12, they sent a letter calling an environmental study Nucor had done and the department's review inadequate. They said Nucor's permits should be delayed pending an EIS. The steel mill, they said, "has the potential to cause or contribute to significant damage to the marine and estuarine fishery resources and habitats of North Carolina." The letter followed a similar one from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Four days later, the department announced it would require Nucor to expand the study it had done but stopped short of demanding a full-fledged EIS.

"DENR is acting as an advocate for an industry at the same time we're trying to sustain an existing industry - commercial fishing," Phillips says. "One of our overriding concerns is the precedent the state is setting for future projects." A big one looms right behind. Richmond, Va.-based Chesapeake Corp. has proposed a $180 million tissue-paper plant on the Roanoke River in Halifax County. It, too, will...